Always Read Through the Whole Test...

Next weekend, I start my coaching certification program through iPEC.  When I signed up for this program a little over a month ago, they told me about their Advanced Standing Program that I could participate in and get a $200 reduction in my tuition.  The program is basically completing a bunch of pre-course work that needed to be completed by midnight yesterday.  I was completely enrolled in doing the Advanced Standing program, and I attended the tele-seminar for it at the beginning of October.  There were several workbooks to do, and also a book to read and write a book report about.  I figured the workbooks would be no problem, so I decided to focus all my attention on getting the book read so I could do the book report.

When I was in grade school, probably around 4th or 5th grade, we had this test one day.  It was this ridiculously difficult test, with all sorts of random things you had to do in the middle of it.  So I went through several pages of doing this test, and then I get to the last question, which basically says you don't need to do any of the things in this test, just sit quietly at your desk.  The moral of the story?  Always read through every test to see what kinds of questions are on it, so that you know how to manage your time.

I'm sure you know where this is going...

So, guess who didn't read through the whole test again this time?  Yep, ME!  I was so focused on reading the book for the book report, that until Monday of this week, I didn't look at the workbooks to see what was involved.  One, the Life Review, was 30 very full pages long.  Another, the Intentions workbook, was 27 very full pages long.  The last one was only 16 pages long.  Okay, major freak-out.  So I started working on the workbooks on Monday, and there was a lot more involved than I realized.  I set aside several hours on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to get all the work done by the Thursday night deadline.  Major stress for me.

Anyway, to make a long story short (I know, too late!), come Thursday morning and I'm nowhere near done with all the work.  So I had to choose:  try and get everything done by midnight for my $200 rebate, or stop stressing out over something voluntary and make my peace with it.  Could I have gotten it done by midnight?  Probably.  At the expense of all the other things I needed to do, including getting us ready to spend this weekend at Landmark for the 5th Wisdom weekend.   So I chose to make peace with not completing the work, which was very challenging for me.  I tend to set high expectations for myself and I am a perfectionist.  And I was really really pissed at myself for not looking at how much work there was going to be and spacing it out better over the month that I had to do everything.

I'm still going into next weekend with a whole lot more knowledge than I would have had if I had chosen not to participate in the Advanced Standing program to begin with.  And, all the work that I did get done doesn't go to waste, because all of those workbooks and the book report are part of the certification program, and I'm going to have to get them done eventually.

Still, an interesting lesson to learn...again.

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